Ableton Forum

I have developed a harmonic mixing chart specifically for Live. It's based on the Camelot System, but uses colours from Live's default colour palette.

I hope some of you may find it useful.

you developed that?

What happens when you are color blind?

'Developed' as in - tailored the colours for Live. Nothing more. I'm not trying to claim I created harmonic mixing or have designed the chart from scratch. I haven't. That is way beyond me. If you want to see more about harmonic mixing then go to www.harmonic-mixing.com

Just thought it'd make sense to turn the chart into the same colours that Live uses. It's something I did to make it easier for me when DJing and thought I'd share it with everyone here.

After looking at it on another screen which isn't my crappy work screen - I shall be making a few tweaks.

im colour blind (with synistesia) and been trying to make my colours work for me.

im defo gonna use this. nice one mate.

the only problem is that the wheel has the benifit of ajacent blocks where the ableton clour chart can work like that. is it possible to have an arrow system.

I have a question I hope someone will be able to ans for me. I understand the theory of whats being described here as I play classical guitar. However, from my understading (which could be wrong) the system here is that the colour assigned in ableton for a track or clip is representative of the key it is in. But if i load the same clip or track into ableton several times it will change colour and be assigned colours which are often not listed as musical notes in the grid. Will this only work for midi clips ? or have I missed something here?

Kealanm1 wrote:I have a question I hope someone will be able to ans for me. I understand the theory of whats being described here as I play classical guitar. However, from my understading (which could be wrong) the system here is that the colour assigned in ableton for a track or clip is representative of the key it is in. But if i load the same clip or track into ableton several times it will change colour and be assigned colours which are often not listed as musical notes in the grid. Will this only work for midi clips ? or have I missed something here?

you have to manually tell live what colour should be used. live can then save a clip default.

Thanks a mill, felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall last night knew I has misunderstood something there!

Yep. It's a chart originally created by www.harmonic-mixing.com and is called the 'Camelot System'. Go on to the site and read about it. It's really aimed at DJs to enable them to mix songs which work together.

They have a chart on their site and also some great software which will tell you what the BPM and key of your songs are. You can then use the chart to choose which song you will play next - ensuring that the songs will mix well.

I'm not sure if it's a helpful tool for playing music in general. But, doing some mixing myself, I initially thought that it would be great to customise the colours to fit with live. That way I can assign the relevant colour to each clip - giving me a quick visual reference to which clips to choose next.

I have tweaked it a bit as everyone's screen shows colours slightly differently. If you feel that some colours work better for you - then tweak it to your liking.

I missed the meaning of 'tailored' in your thread title.

I've had Mixed In Key for a while and have always hated the Camelot system. I'd much much rather use traditional musical keys. Camelot or traditional, you still have to learn something new. why not learn something musical that can advance your general musical talent (for lack of a better word) rather than learn something new that's only applicable to Mixed In Key?

To Tone Deft,

Not a problem. I'm still fairly new to all this. I thought the Camelot System was pretty good, but then - as I say - I'm still in learning mode so it may be a bit crap to someone with more experience. I find it useful for mixing, but perhaps I won't whenit comes to writing my own music.

Chances are I'll produce something similar to help me out with those times when I write something from scratch.

I'm actually a designer by trade, so I naturally turn things into something which visually makes things easy - hence the chart. If you have any tips as to something else I should be looking to amend to help Live users - let me know.

Oh and one more thing. I don't see this as learning something new. It's merely a way to use colour to reference musical notes. It works for me as I naturally see what colours go together. I'm not saying it works for everyone.

Just thought I'd share it in case others find it useful.

don't get me wrong, it's useful no doubt and plenty of people relate to colors naturally. it was just a question that I've been meaning to ask for years.

personally I lean towards the music theory way of looking at music. a LOT of people would rather just color code their tracks in session view and DJ away.

harmonic mixing made my lame ass mashup/DJ playsets sound VASTLY better. plus it clued me into when to pitch tracks up or down a step.

it's a good contribution, no doubt.

i think the number letter thing is really dumb but whatever. some dude invented it and its stuck so i guess its alright. the guy who invented claims he didnt know the circle of 5ths when he made it. somehow its patented or something, even though its just circle of 5ths with a different name. i dont get it.